American Avocet - Ross Feldner This elegant, leggy wader moves through shallow waters swishing its thin, upturned bill from side to side looking to catch aquatic invertebrates. American Avocets were previously found across most of the United States until extirpated from breeding on the East Coast. Their breeding habitat consists of marshes, beaches, prairie ponds, and shallow lakes in the mid-west. Their migration route lands them in almost every state in the western United States and on the East Coast from Delaware south to Florida where they spend the winter. American Avocets nest on the ground in places with little to no surrounding vegetation. They make shallow indentations in the ground for their nest and line it with grass, feathers, pebbles or other small objects. Some avocets do not line their nests at all! The avocet’s call has been described as both a shrill and melodic alarm bweet, which rises in inflection over time. Avocets use three distinct calls: common call, excited call, and broken wing call. They do the broken wing feint like the Killdeer. The common call is a loud repeated wheep. The excited call has a similar wheep sound, but it speeds up rather than having an even rhythm. Lastly, the broken wing call is noticeably different from the other two calls. It is a distressed screech sound and is alarming rather than melodic. | |
